Focus gets stuck to a window - impossible to select other windows

[Yann Hamon]

Alright, terribly annoying bug that gets me to reboot several times a day, but very hard to understand how to trigger it.

What happens: after some time of usage, you get "stuck" in a window. Idem est, you can not select another window.
You can still click, select and drag in the window that has the focus, but clicking on other windows, or on the panel, just doesn't work.

Notes:
- With window I don't mean "application window". For example it can only be the page view in firefox, and you won't be able to click the buttons or the URL field. It can also be the main text window in xchat, and you wont be able to click in the user list or to change the chatroom.
- The click seems to be grabbed by the window having the focus, even if you click outside of it. For example, using xchat, if the main text window has focus, clicking and dragging in the user list will actually select text in the main text window.
- Using xev, it seems that clics do not get passed to the correct window at all (nothing received)
- I have no idea what triggers this as sometimes it will trigger alone - pc works, I leave it for an hour, I come back, the problem is triggered
- Curious effect now: dragging and dropping to another window gives focus to the window, and seems to be the only way to do so. For example if in firefox the main page view window has the focus and I cant click the buttons, drag and dropping text to the buttons gives the focus to the buttons, and I can't clic the page view window anymore. Drag and dropping a button to the page view window gives it its focus back....

Additional info:
* Compiz disabled
* Intel graphic card
* Ubuntu jaunty - latest patches
* Using a laptop, with an USB mouse

HAL, xserver, I have no idea where to file this bug into. I hope it will be fixed before the release, it is really terribly annoying :s
Please tell me if there is any other detail I can provide.

[Paul Kohler (moxiewhimsy)]

When this occurs, it would appear that the point at which mouse events occur is also locked, though I have a very difficult time confirming. Specifically, when the focus is locked on the xfce4-panel system tray applet, context-menu-click (default right-click) brings the context menu associated with just one system tray item, regardless of where the pointer points. Additionally, hovering the cursor over different areas of the screen will still only display tooltips for one specific item, and not necessarily one that is being hovered over.

This occurs for me in both Xfce4 and Gnome. I've only observed this bug while more than one window is open. However, this is a fairly common state, and closing windows does not remove the effects.

Similar to above listed curious effects, I've noticed a couple things will "dislodge" the stuck focus (temporarily):
•Sometimes Alt-Right-click seems to allow focus travel normally until the next time I click on a control, at which point focus is stuck again.
• Switching workspaces using hotkey usually works, but is still temporary, and focus promptly becomes stuck once I click again.

[Anton Panov (adotka)]

I have the same problem after dist-upgrading to Jaunty from Intrepid.

* In my case the effect is present even with only one open window.
* Switching workspaces with hotkey does not work for me
* Neither Alt-Right-click
* Drag-drop trick works only when there's something draggable in "greedy" area to drag outside
* I've noticed the curious reproduceable effect:
# start with empty desktop with standard Gnome panels
# right-click on the panel, choose "Add to Panel"
# once "Add to Panel" window is open, click within Applet List
# now mouse is locked within Applet List, plus some "fantom" control

The "fantom" control have same width as applet list, and extending to full screen height, overlaying the desktop and Gnome panels.
The control is not visible
Clicking anywhere outside its extents does nothing
Clicking within Applet List selects the clicked applet as expected
Clicking within "fantom" control above Applet List scrolls the list up by some amount, less than PgUp does
Clicking within "fantom" control below Applet List scrolls the list down by some amount, less than PgDn does
When there's less space than full page remains for Applet List to scroll up or down, respective clickable "fantom" area shrinks from the edge of the screen.

Sorry, I'd like to add an illustration, but it's impossible to use Gimp while mouse locks all the time.

Checked with the same results with and without proprietary NVidia drivers.

[Anton Panov (adotka)]

The Bug #361983 https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/361983/ could be related to this, although, 361983 is KUbuntu one, but the somptoms are quite similar

[BlackenedSky (caffeine-lord)]

Also experiencing this issue after an upgrade to jaunty. Here's some info (when the bug occurs):

Tried my old dist-upgrade xorg.conf with no sucess.
Xorg.0.conf, messages, dmesg, syslog, debug show no errors when this occurs.
Issue occurs with compiz enabled also, regardless of what modules are en/disabled.
Shortcut keys such as ctrl+space to bring up window menu do not work, which leads to me to believe it might be a window manager bug.
Alt+tab has no effect
Ctrl+alt+left arrow sometimes works (to switch workspace)
Only solution I have found is to drop to shell via ctrl+f1 and restart GDM
Using nvidia drivers as well
Mouse pointer moves, however it's internal position does not - possibly also a bug with positon polling?
Ctrl+alt+d to minimize all windows works, at which point the mouse positon (not pointer graphic itself) becomes locked in place (over the AWN dock in my case). Subsequent clicks are done in the context of that position, regardless of the location of hte pointer graphic
Prior to the distribution upgrade from intrepid, no such issues occured (which had proposed update sources enabled as well. Backports NOT enabled)
When the focus becomes locked to a window (i.e. not the entire window, just the window handle of hte respective element - e.g. the text area of aterminal, or display area of a firefox tab, or icon in the panel, and location text area (nautilus location bar, firefox address bar etc), scrolling does not work via any of the possible methods at that time (e.g. page down, mouse wheel, arrow keys etc...)
Hot-keys relevent to the focus stealing 'window' (again, such as an the actual display area of a FF tab, not the top bars etc) still function (e.g. backspace, ctrl+w)
After reading another similar bug which suggested HAL was no longer running, I check to see that HAL was in fact still running. A restart of HAL had no effect either
Keyboard and mouse are both USB
Switching the USB ports being used had no effect
Ctrl+alt+backspace to restart the xserver does not respond

I'm unsure if it's of use/interest, but the compiz cube plugin had a similar bug some months back, where an incomplete rotation screwed up input focus. However, even with compiz disabled, the bug still occurs (as mentioned by the original bug reporter). Also, the bug occurs without any prior workspace switches.

[BlackenedSky (caffeine-lord)]

I have found an interesting (but temporary) solution to this bug that doesn't require a GDM restart, and hopefully will give the developers a better idea where the issue lies:

I have found that using the hotkeys to switch my workspace to one without any application windows, then right clicking on the desktop brings up the desktop's menu, as you would expect. However, focus then returns to windows on the previous workspace without a problem once I cycle back. This works every time so far. However, doing a left click instead or a right click takes you back to the previous workspace and the cliick event occurs in the context of the window that has stolen focus.

[scott28 (lubomir-krajcovic)]

The same after upgrading to Jaunty.

It seems to be:
- unrelated to used desktop enviromnent (gnome, xfce, kde)
- unrelated to video hardware / driver (I have Geforce FX 5200, tried both nv, and nvidia drivers), and it seems other people with intel gpu do have the same bug too

Main suspects:
- kernel (event system)
- HAL
- xorg server

Anything new?

[BlackenedSky (caffeine-lord)]

Update: Restarting HAL has no effect (which was still running at the time). When issue occurs, Xorg.0.log (/var/log/Xorg.0.log) displays messages:
PATEN USB HID Device: Device reopened after 1 attempts

That message is displayed several times over.

This is the log when Xserver starts up to detect the devices:

II) config/hal: Adding input device Macintosh mouse button emulation
(**) Macintosh mouse button emulation: Device: "/dev/input/event3"
(II) XINPUT: Adding extended input device "Macintosh mouse button emulation" (type: MOUSE)
(II) config/hal: Adding input device PATEN USB HID Device
(**) PATEN USB HID Device: always reports core events
(**) PATEN USB HID Device: Device: "/dev/input/event4"
(II) PATEN USB HID Device: Found keys
(II) PATEN USB HID Device: Configuring as keyboard
(II) XINPUT: Adding extended input device "PATEN USB HID Device" (type: KEYBOARD)
(**) PATEN USB HID Device: xkb_rules: "evdev"
(**) PATEN USB HID Device: xkb_model: "pc105"
(**) PATEN USB HID Device: xkb_layout: "gb"
(II) config/hal: Adding input device PATEN USB HID Device
(**) PATEN USB HID Device: always reports core events
(**) PATEN USB HID Device: Device: "/dev/input/event6"
(II) PATEN USB HID Device: Found 5 mouse buttons
(II) PATEN USB HID Device: Found x and y relative axes
(II) PATEN USB HID Device: Configuring as mouse
(**) PATEN USB HID Device: YAxisMapping: buttons 4 and 5
(**) PATEN USB HID Device: EmulateWheelButton: 4, EmulateWheelInertia: 10, EmulateWheelTimeout: 200
(II) XINPUT: Adding extended input device "PATEN USB HID Device" (type: MOUSE)
(**) PATEN USB HID Device: (accel) keeping acceleration scheme 1
(**) PATEN USB HID Device: (accel) filter chain progression: 2.00
(**) PATEN USB HID Device: (accel) filter stage 0: 20.00 ms
(**) PATEN USB HID Device: (accel) set acceleration profile 0

Note that my mouse is a 2 button(3 if you count scroll wheel button) mouse, not a Mac mouse? The keyboard and mouse are wireless, and both go through a single reciever/single USB connection. Also tried the reverting to 2.4 xorg-intel driver for intrepid I found in the ubuntu wiki (it is intended for another problem, but I thought I'd give it a shot), which had no effect.

Contents of /dev/input:
ls -1 /dev/input
by-id
by-path
event0
event1
event2
event3
event4
event5
event6
mice
mouse0
mouse1

Anyone have any ideas based on that info? Does this mean it is an x-server issue, or HAL issue? The right click solution is still working (when the 'greedy' controls have a context menu available). Have also tried enabling the 'proposed' sources in hope maybe it has been fixed somewhere already, but so far no luck.

Also, multimedia keys such as the volume still work when focus has bugged out.

[Yann Hamon (yannh)]

Well my xorg log is flooded with these:

Query no Synaptics: 6003C8
Query no Synaptics: 6003C8
Query no Synaptics: 6003C8
Query no Synaptics: 6003C8
Query no Synaptics: 6003C8
Query no Synaptics: 6003C8

[bamboo (bamboo)]

Temp solution (for me) : Right click before left click everything.

[BlackenedSky (caffeine-lord)]

See bug #374417

[scott28 (lubomir-krajcovic)]

it's xorg server bug, not related to any particular video driver

[scott28 (lubomir-krajcovic)]

After many experiments...

it seems to be xinerama bug in xorg-server-1.6.0 - and yes, xinerama is activated even if you use only one display output. and yes - it is build-in into xorg-server, and CAN'T be deactivated (tried every possible option in xorg.conf)

The only solution, which works for me is to DOWNGRADE xorg-server to the version shipped in Intrepid Ibex, see this guide:
http://dailyvim.blogspot.com/2008/12/ubuntu-downgrading-xorg.html
(just replace "hardy" with "intrepid" while adding sources into /etc/apt/sources.list)

[Yann Hamon (yannh)]

Enough people experimenting this to confirm it I think...

[komputes (komputes)]

In an attempt to find commonality, can each of you confirm that you have this issue on a box where you upgraded from Intrepid -> Jaunty and not on a clean install of Jaunty directly from the CD.

[komputes (komputes)]

Besides the clean/upgrade question, please post wheather you are using :

Laptops that have a trackpad (synaptic device)
or
Laptop with a trackpad + external USB mouse
or
Desktop with a USB mouse.

[Anton Panov (adotka)]

dist-upgrade from Intrepid -> Jaunty
USB mouse

[Anton Panov (adotka)]

Sorry, Desktop with a USB mouse

[scott28 (lubomir-krajcovic)]

Hello David,

In my case:
- yes, it's present after upgrading from Intrepid to Jaunty
- i do not know, if it's present in Jaunty clean install - i did not try that, but:
  it's not user-profile (user-settings) related (= bug is present for newly created users too)
- i've resolved this bug by downgrading xorg to Intrepid packages,
  in particular exactly these:
  xserver-xorg xserver-xorg-core xserver-xorg-input-evdev xserver-xorg-input-kbd xserver-xorg-input-mouse
  Note: I did not need to downgrade nvidia drivers, or anything else

hardware:
- classical desktop, older HW (athlon XP, 512MB RAM, geforce FX5200) - see lspci, lsusb
- keyboard is connected via PS/2, optical mouse (tried 2 differrent) via USB (see dmesg, lsusb)

all info taken from (now) functional system with downgraded xorg.

[Yann Hamon (yannh)]

Hello, following the advice from the support, I've disabled synaptics for now in the xorg.conf file (commented all line referring to a synaptics device). The bug hasn't occured since then....

[Paul Kohler (moxiewhimsy)]

Did experience on Intrepid->Jaunty Upgrade; however, I've done a clean install of Jaunty—unrelated—and it still occasionally affects me. Possibly with lower frequency.

Laptop. Toshiba Tecra A9 with one of many processors denoted "Centrino Duo" (Santa Rosa according to Wikipedia). Intel x3100 graphics.

To be fair, something similar occurred on this system in Intrepid and (I think) in Hardy, with a very low occurrence rate. The same temp fixes I've used with this one, I learned previously from previous distributions. My trouble determining how to reproduce and properly describe the bug prevented an earlier report. Those and the relatively low occurrence rate.

@Yann I'd like to try that, but I'ven't any lines in xorg.conf related to synaptics devices since HAL seems to have taken over input.

[Yann Hamon (yannh)]

Paul > I also disabled all the lines refering to wacom tablets as I don't have any :) the bug doesn't affect me anymore.

[bamboo (bamboo)]

As far as I can remember, the problem started for me after i tried to install a wiimote. It was a fresh install. Reinstalled jaunty from scratch without the wiimote solved the problem. I think i'll retry wiimote installation before the end of june.

[Zach Shepherd (eightball1989)]

FWIW, I'm experiencing this issue on an from-CD Jaunty install with relatively few extra packages installed and minimal configuration changes. I'm on a sony sz340 laptop using the trackpad.

Running "skill -u ..." to terminate my session from another console and logging back in seems to fix the issue until the next reboot/suspend.

[Vincent Maucorps (vincent-maucorps)]

I get it first in an upgrade from Intrepid, on a desktop+usb mouse

Then I get it from an almost clean install of Jaunty, on laptop+usb mouse.
Almost clean, because everything seems to be OK before activating the compiz related extra display features which also need to use an nvidia driver, and installing macromedia flash plug-in and skype.

I confirm that terminating the session and logging back in seems to fix the issue until the next reboot.
Making a left click and getting a contextual menu can help to get back enough focus to close the session graphically.

Could it be possible to give this bug a high importance, because it is the kind of thing that can really turn-off new users, since it makes Ubuntu quite useless...

[poopybananahammockwheel (gccdragoonkain)]

same problem. First time trying (k)ubuntu of any version. I'm using nvidia driver with TV as only display + usb wireless mouse. Very annoying bug. Its far less frequent when I use x2x to remotely control the mouse. Either way I'm hoping for a fix very soon that doesn't involve downgrading xorg

[poopybananahammockwheel (gccdragoonkain)]

found this

https://bugs.launchpad.net/fedora/+source/xorg-server/+bug/296167/+viewstatus

someone needs to apply this, test it, and release it to ubuntu ASAP. leaving this bug unfixed is absurd

[Carl Vondrick (carl-vondrick)]

Happens to me too on both a clean install and upgrade. It seems that restarting the Xserver a few times after logging in seems to give relief. Upgraded to latest Jaunty.

[Glenn Moloney (glenn-moloney)]

I have also been hit by this one. I had upgraded from Intrepid to Jaunty shortly after it was released. The bug did not surface till 3 - 4 weeks ago after an upgrade. I am now at the latest Jaunty and still seeing this problem, which is solved by logging in, and logging out immediately after system boot.

Just to add a possible pointer to what some are reporting, the bug did surface shortly after I had installed a Genius Tablet, but I did not notice it immediately. So, this is just one more data point hinting at a link to the use of extra input devices.

I have now downgraded to hardy's xserver-xorg - and all is fine (except that the xserver consumes all the CPU on one of my cores :-). I can live with that though till the problem is fixed.

Could someone please promote this bug to High Importance? It is insidious - and seriously dented the Ubuntu experience for my spouse and kids. Eventually it did get promoted when it originally appeared in Intrepid.

[scott28 (lubomir-krajcovic)]

Glenn Moloney: The same problem - downgraded X.org consumes 1 CPU core, while the system is completely useable. So - still waiting for definitive solution of this one...

[Zach Shepherd (eightball1989)]

I don't have enough trials to rule out coincidence, but it seems to happen to me only when I have a web cam connected. I can't figure out what the connection is, but I was experiencing the problem with one camera, disconnected the camera and returned it because of unrelated issues, and didn't experience the issue again until I had connected a (different) camera.

[Carl Vondrick (carl-vondrick)]

No webcam has ever been installed on my computer affected.

[Carl Vondrick (carl-vondrick)]

Present in the Karmic beta. Please fix!

[nEJC (nejc-nejc)]

run into it in jaunty x64
Unpluging wacom tablet as mentined here:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/374417/comments/3
solved it ...

[David Barnett (mu-mind)]

I can't tell if this is the same issue, but recently I've been coming out of suspend sometimes and finding almost nothing responds to clicks (karmic x64, up-to-date). When it happens, I can still click in some places, but the panel doesn't do anything, alt-tab doesn't work, the cursor doesn't change properly (e.g. above text), and if I go back into suspend it:
 - waits and goes blank instead of fading
 - comes straight back up to a desktop instead of a login screen on resume

Switching workspaces seems to make some of it a little better, but doesn't make the problems disappear completely. Only rebooting seems to bring everything back to normal.

I recently upgraded X (xserver-common_2:1.6.4-2ubuntu4 and xserver-xorg-core_2:1.6.4-2ubuntu4), and I can't be sure, but it seems like the problem happens a lot when I leave firefox open during suspend (3.6~b5~hg20091204r33317+nobinonly-0ubuntu1~umd1~karmic). Can't pinpoint any nasty log messages. Any suggestions?

[Markus Johnsson (mjohnsson)]

I think this is the bug I had.. And I also thinks it has something to do with the window manager or window themes. Hitting "Alt+F2" and entering "metacity --replace" sometimes fixed the issues I had. So I tried installing XFCE instead of GNOME as it uses another window manager. I've had no problems so far.

[David Barnett (mu-mind)]

Okay, I think my problem is that the touchpad driver locks the touchpad "clicked", i.e. it thinks I've clicked-and-held.

I get these messages beforehand in dmesg:
[124746.285974] psmouse.c: GlidePoint at isa0060/serio1/input0 lost sync at byte 5
[124746.287564] psmouse.c: GlidePoint at isa0060/serio1/input0 lost sync at byte 1
[124746.294845] psmouse.c: GlidePoint at isa0060/serio1/input0 - driver resynched.
[124746.300127] psmouse.c: GlidePoint at isa0060/serio1/input0 lost sync at byte 1
[124746.323515] psmouse.c: GlidePoint at isa0060/serio1/input0 - driver resynched.

Keyboard events, etc., are affected because that's how it acts when the mouse is clicked:
 - alt-tab doesn't do anything but ctrl-alt-left/right do
 - pressing the suspend key waits and goes blank instead of fading, and comes straight back up to the desktop

[IndyCore (jan-kjerbye)]

I can confirm the bug on a Dell Mini 9 with Synaptics touchpad, with bluetooth mouse and with USB mouse. Clean install with karmic several times.. even from mini.iso and adding packages manually. The bug appears after a while.

Trying the xorg downgrade and hoping for a fix soon.. its a VERY crippling bug!

[IndyCore (jan-kjerbye)]

Tried adding xorg-edgers ppa, but newest xorg doesnt fix it

[mihai.ile (mihai.ile)]

I can confirm this bug on updated 9.10, even using only the live CD, nothing additional installed.
On my system is SO easy to make it happen. Just open any window (terminal for example) and select titlebar to move it a little several times, it will happen on 3rd or 4th time.
Also another easy way to loose focus is to alternately click inside the window and on desktop several times (this does not fail, bug happens every time I try it).
The solution is to switch to other workspace (ctrl-alt-right) click on desktop then go back to previous desktop, although sometimes it locks completely (mouse moves but no clicks or keyboard clicks anywhere) so I have to kill X in order to use it again

The laptop is an Toshiba U500-1EW that has an nvidia 310M (I believe it is not related to graphic card) and it has a multy touch touchpad, at least they say you can zoom in/out with 2 fingers in win7

[Carl Vondrick (carl-vondrick)]

I discovered that by changing the USB port that my mouse was plugged into would cause the problem to go away for a while. It will always come back in time (a few hours, days, or weeks), but at least it's a partial solution.

This does not happen on other operating systems (namely Windows XP and 7), so I am confident in ruling out a hardware problem.

[mihai.ile (mihai.ile)]

I had to change from gnome to xfce since gnome is unusable. (locks every ~10 mouse clicks)
Now on xfce it still happens, but the rate has gone from 10 mouse clicks to maybe 1-2 times a day.
Do you think it's possible to reset the mouse position using a shortcut when this happens?

something like a command that moves the mouse to a x,y position and resets the drag/drop/click events on the pointer...

[Richard Jacobsen (richard-unixboxen)]

I appear to have the same problem - clean install of ubuntu karmic.

[petter wahlman (petter-wahlman)]

I got the same problem when upgrading from Karmic to Lucid.

I can reliably reproduce the problem by debugging a program with DDD, and right-clicking on a variable in the data window.
The pointer get's stuck in the data window, and no gnome window manager shortcuts work.

To get the machine back to a usable state, I have to switch to the console by pressing ALT+F2, and doing killall ddd.

[Delan Azabani (azabani)]

I have never had this problem before. However, today, when browsing using Firefox, without having changed any settings or installed any updates, the problem has set in and hasn't gone away since. I'm using Lucid.

[Delan Azabani (azabani)]

Hmm... after one more reboot the problem seems to have disappeared for now.

[theorem (thoerme)]

Going on #20's suggestion above, I did a complete removal of the "xserver-xorg-input-wacom" and "xserver-xorg-input-synaptics" packages from my 10.04 system. I can't be certain, as the problem has always been intermittent for me, but it seems to have gone away. My xorg.conf file made no reference to wacom or synaptics, although I guess device configuration is handled by Udev now; the relevant Udev files for wacom and synaptics were of course removed when I removed the related packages.

And just for reference, I updated from 9.10 to 10.04, but I first encountered this problem in 9.10, for which I did a clean install.

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

Hmm, it would help to have detailed, specific steps to reproduce this issue and/or pinpoint to the hardware it can be seen on. I've never seen this bug myself, on any of the hardware I've tested.

While I don't deny this is a legitimate issue and probably extremely annoying when it occurs, I think there's still not quite enough information about it exposed for it to be analyzed. But I'm assigning to Timo to take a quick look at it, to see if there is something obvious that can be done. Timo, if you think this is something that can be SRU'd go ahead and accept the Lucid nomination, but if it's unclear let's decline it for now and leave it to Meerkat.

Meanwhile, if others wish to analyze this issue more deeply, the xtrace utility might be helpful in examining the communication between client and server, to help narrow in on what is causing the focus to get trapped.

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

[This is an automatic notification.]

Hi Yann,

This bug was reported against an earlier version of Ubuntu, can you
test if it still occurs on Lucid?

Please note we also provide technical support for older versions of
Ubuntu, but not in the bug tracker. Instead, to raise the issue through
normal support channels, please see:

    http://www.ubuntu.com/support

If you are the original reporter and can still reproduce the issue on
Lucid, please run the following command to refresh the report:

  apport-collect 362359

If you are not the original reporter, please file a new bug report, so
we can work with you as the original reporter instead (you can reference
bug 362359 in your report if you think it may be related):

  ubuntu-bug xorg

If by chance you can no longer reproduce the issue on Lucid or if you
feel it is no longer relevant, please mark the bug report 'Fix Released'
or 'Invalid' as appropriate, at the following URL:

  https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/362359

[mihai.ile (mihai.ile)]

I made some tests on a toshiba that has this problem in 9.10, usig 10.04 beta2 live cd and could not reproduce the problem, but I can't say 100% it does not exist anymore as it is not my pc so I could make further tests.

[Glenn Moloney (glenn-moloney)]

Will test this weekend (I'm not the original reporter though). I just need
to connect up my tablet to my lucid box and let the kids use it.

cheers,
glenn.

On 6 May 2010 06:21, Bryce Harrington <email address hidden> wrote:

> [This is an automatic notification.]
>
> Hi Yann,
>
> This bug was reported against an earlier version of Ubuntu, can you
> test if it still occurs on Lucid?
>
> Please note we also provide technical support for older versions of
> Ubuntu, but not in the bug tracker. Instead, to raise the issue through
> normal support channels, please see:
>
> http://www.ubuntu.com/support
>
>
> If you are the original reporter and can still reproduce the issue on
> Lucid, please run the following command to refresh the report:
>
> apport-collect 362359
>
> If you are not the original reporter, please file a new bug report, so
> we can work with you as the original reporter instead (you can reference
> bug 362359 in your report if you think it may be related):
>
> ubuntu-bug xorg
>
> If by chance you can no longer reproduce the issue on Lucid or if you
> feel it is no longer relevant, please mark the bug report 'Fix Released'
> or 'Invalid' as appropriate, at the following URL:
>
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/362359
>
>
> ** Changed in: xorg-server (Ubuntu)
> Status: Confirmed => Incomplete
>
> ** Tags added: needs-retested-on-lucid-by-june
>
> --
> Focus gets stuck to a window - impossible to select other windows
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/362359
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>
> Status in “xorg-server” package in Ubuntu: Incomplete
>
> Bug description:
> Alright, terribly annoying bug that gets me to reboot several times a day,
> but very hard to understand how to trigger it.
>
> What happens: after some time of usage, you get "stuck" in a window. Idem
> est, you can not select another window.
> You can still click, select and drag in the window that has the focus, but
> clicking on other windows, or on the panel, just doesn't work.
>
> Notes:
> - With window I don't mean "application window". For example it can only be
> the page view in firefox, and you won't be able to click the buttons or the
> URL field. It can also be the main text window in xchat, and you wont be
> able to click in the user list or to change the chatroom.
> - The click seems to be grabbed by the window having the focus, even if you
> click outside of it. For example, using xchat, if the main text window has
> focus, clicking and dragging in the user list will actually select text in
> the main text window.
> - Using xev, it seems that clics do not get passed to the correct window at
> all (nothing received)
> - I have no idea what triggers this as sometimes it will trigger alone - pc
> works, I leave it for an hour, I come back, the problem is triggered
> - Curious effect now: dragging and dropping to another window gives focus
> to the window, and seems to be the only way to do so. For example if in
> firefox the main page view window has the focus and I cant click the
> buttons, drag and dropping text to the buttons gives the focus to the
> buttons, and I can't cli...

[Stephen Warren (srwarren)]

petter wahlman (comment #44), I suspect your bug is different; with ddd, there's a very specific and reproducible way to make this happen. That issue is covered by bug 574157. My quick reading of the rest of this bug is that it's something that happens randomly to people whilst not doing anything specific and/or repeatable.

[alx (iamalx)]

Can confirm this for 9.10 install CD and after 10.4 upgrade. Also, it appears on Gentoo.

ALT-F2 and "metacity --replace" fixes this for a short time.
Removing wacom and synaptics input drivers doesn't help.

Configuration:

Desktop system with Intel motherboard and Pentium IV.
Video: 00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 82865G Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 02)
USB wireless mouse and keyboard, additional PS/2 keyboard.
Linux magic 2.6.32-22-generic #33-Ubuntu SMP Wed Apr 28 13:27:30 UTC 2010 i686 GNU/Linux
xorg-server 2:1.7.6-2ubuntu7

Issue seems to be connected with hardware uptime (warm restart fixes it for a short while when power-cycling fixes it for longer time).

[Glenn Moloney (glenn-moloney)]

Hmm - for the past week I have been running Lucid (clean install from
alt-installer) with attached Genius G-pen 509 tablet attached and wizardpen
input driver.

The problem has not recurred for me in that time.

This is the same machine on which I observed the bug with Jaunty and my
tablet.

System:
Intel Core i7, 6Gb RAM.
Ubuntu Lucid x64, 2.6.32-22-generic #33-Ubuntu SMP, Nvidia GeForce 9600 GT,
nvidia-current: 195.36.15-0ubuntu2
Compiz.

Cheers,
Glenn.

On 13 May 2010 08:19, alx <email address hidden> wrote:

> Can confirm this for 9.10 install CD and after 10.4 upgrade. Also, it
> appears on Gentoo.
>
> ALT-F2 and "metacity --replace" fixes this for a short time.
> Removing wacom and synaptics input drivers doesn't help.
>
> Configuration:
>
> Desktop system with Intel motherboard and Pentium IV.
> Video: 00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 82865G
> Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 02)
> USB wireless mouse and keyboard, additional PS/2 keyboard.
> Linux magic 2.6.32-22-generic #33-Ubuntu SMP Wed Apr 28 13:27:30 UTC 2010
> i686 GNU/Linux
> xorg-server 2:1.7.6-2ubuntu7
>
> Issue seems to be connected with hardware uptime (warm restart fixes it
> for a short while when power-cycling fixes it for longer time).
>
> --
> Focus gets stuck to a window - impossible to select other windows
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/362359
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>
> Status in “xorg-server” package in Ubuntu: Incomplete
>
> Bug description:
> Alright, terribly annoying bug that gets me to reboot several times a day,
> but very hard to understand how to trigger it.
>
> What happens: after some time of usage, you get "stuck" in a window. Idem
> est, you can not select another window.
> You can still click, select and drag in the window that has the focus, but
> clicking on other windows, or on the panel, just doesn't work.
>
> Notes:
> - With window I don't mean "application window". For example it can only be
> the page view in firefox, and you won't be able to click the buttons or the
> URL field. It can also be the main text window in xchat, and you wont be
> able to click in the user list or to change the chatroom.
> - The click seems to be grabbed by the window having the focus, even if you
> click outside of it. For example, using xchat, if the main text window has
> focus, clicking and dragging in the user list will actually select text in
> the main text window.
> - Using xev, it seems that clics do not get passed to the correct window at
> all (nothing received)
> - I have no idea what triggers this as sometimes it will trigger alone - pc
> works, I leave it for an hour, I come back, the problem is triggered
> - Curious effect now: dragging and dropping to another window gives focus
> to the window, and seems to be the only way to do so. For example if in
> firefox the main page view window has the focus and I cant click the
> buttons, drag and dropping text to the buttons gives the focus to the
> buttons, and I can't clic the page view window anymore. Drag and dropping a
> button to the page view window gives it its focus back....
>
>
> Additional info:
> * Compiz disable...

[Stephen Blackheath (confectionery-kaput-stephen)]

Yes, this bug still exists on Lucid with latest updates, but it is now much less frequent. On Karmic it would happen every 1-2 days. I've been running Lucid for over a month and it has taken this long to happen only once. (I use my computer all day every day.)

Exactly the same bug: Focus is stuck in a Window. Can get to other windows only by closing the stuck window, then you're stuck in the next window. Alt-Tab doesn't work (no effect whatsoever). I think the mouse cursor is a resize one like ->| but I'm not certain. Resize works so you can expose other windows, but clicking on them has no effect.

[rcoe67 (rcoe)]

I have the same problem after upgrading karmic to lucid but only when I use my bluetooth mouse. If I boot with my wired mouse, I never have focus problems; when I work from home and use my wireless bluetooth mouse, the problem recurs without fail. I haven't yet experimented with using my touchpad/touchstick and not my bluetooth mouse.

Other difference between home (focus problems and bluetooth mouse) v. work (works with wired mouse) is that I use two external monitors at work and just my Dell 6500 laptop display at home. I have an NVidia Quadro NVS 160M graphics adapter and am using driver version 195.36.24. My X is version 1.7.6 from x.org.

[Darryl Dixon (esrever-otua)]

Bug has just struck me upgrading (with update-manager tool) from 9.10 to 10.04. Happened immediately and persistently from the very first login. I removed:

dpkg --remove --ignore-depends=xserver-xorg-input-all xserver-xorg-input-wacom xserver-xorg-input-synaptics

...and now my system is usable again. Time will tell if it strikes less often as other users above have reported, but this is a severe and major bug. If I was not a seasoned Linux user and committed Ubuntu user, I'd have installed Windows, it's that bad.

[Darryl Dixon (esrever-otua)]

Unplugging and re-plugging my USB mouse temporarily 'unsticks' it too.

[timl (hm598)]

I wanted to confirm what an earlier poster indicated: I can reliably reproduce this issue by debugging a program in ddd and then right clicking on a variable.

xserver-xorg : 2:1.7.6-2ubuntu7

[drm / Gerard (drm-melp)]

Got the same problem in debian testing (squeeze) for a while. I tried removing the wacom and synaptics input drivers and hope this will be effective. I'll report back about that.

Following workarounds were more or less effective for me: rightclicking on desktop after Super+D, restarting window manager (tried openbox, fluxbox and metacity) with --replace, and replugging the mouse. But in a few minutes the problem always reoccurred. I'm still not sure what triggers it.

So afaics it has nothing to do with Ubuntu. Debian has the same dependencies in xserver-xorg-input-all though.

[Farzad Battiwalla (farzadb82)]

I'm having the exact same issues. I've been monitoring this thread in the hopes that someone, somewhere will come out with a fix or a work around that works.

To add my 5c, on my laptop, a dv3510NR, the trouble only exhibits itself after a few suspend-resume cycles. It's completely random in that it could happen on the first suspend-resume cycle or it could happen after several cycles. The longest I've ever gone for without issues has been about a week.

Some other points to note, in the hopes that it helps; The pointer can be freed by either closing the window that has the focus locked or by bringing up a menu widget within the locked window. This will free the lock until another window gets left-clicked. Right-clicking does not trigger this behavior.

Forcing a display of the desktop will temporarily release the focus until the original window is brought back or another window is left-clicked. Also, left-clicking a windows' widgets (ie. minimize, maximize, etc) does not trigger this behavior. Finally, once locked, the window widgets become unresponsive.

The problem does not appear to be application related. I forced myself to use my system such that all applications get killed/shutdown before suspending, however, the behavior was still triggered.

My system specs are as follows:
  HP DV3510NR
  NVidia drivers v185.18.36
  Ubuntu 9.10

I hope this helps someone dig further. I'd also be open to running some diagnostic tools when this behavior is triggered and to post the results back, if someone can point me in the right direction in terms of what to run.

[timl (hm598)]

Additional note:

When I reproduce this issue with ddd, I find that the only way to unfreeze the cursor is to telnet into my machine from my Windows box and then kill the ddd process.

[Apolo Luis (jpolorolu)]

Running Karmic 9.10, on a laptop with a trackpad and USB mouse. I ran the command given by Darryl in comment #57 and the tendency to regain and keep focus of a window improved slightly. Still not great though, as every time I try to switch focus to a window (or lose it due to interacting with the top or bottom panels) I have to play around with Ctrl-Alt-D and right-clicking.

Once the focus goes away, the workaround I've found for switching focus to another window involves
1. Ctrl-Alt-Ding to minimize everything
2. Clicking the window I want open, then
3. Right clicking its tab on the bottom panel (or alternatively, as others have noticed, the Desktop) and clicking back into the desired window until I notice the window picking up my mouse placement.

As soon as the window is not in the specific focused state (from clicking anywhere else), moving, resizing, maximizing, minimizing that window or using any of the windows menus or buttons becomes impossible (the pointer doesn't change contextually to the "resize window" arrows at the window's edges and the buttons don't highlight when hovered over).

I cannot stress enough how crippling this is, especially for a new user who doesn't know a workaround (or keyboard shortcuts). This bug essentially eliminates any kind of efficient multi-tasking using multiple open windows.

[alx (iamalx)]

I can reproduce it on different hardware!

I connected my wireless mouse/keyboard (USB Labtec - some kind of cheap chinise brand) to my Asus EeePC 901 with installed Ubuntu 10.04 (earlier I had this bug at my box on 9.10 and 10.04) and it currently shows analogical behavior. Re-plugging keyboard/mouse receiver always fixes this issue. Seems like keyboard-related - I have never saw this issue at my eeepc.

I think I could donate this wireless keyboard/mouse to developers. Going to test it under Windows before, however.

BTW, this happens more often when I use remote desktop connection in dual-screen configuration.

[Timo Aaltonen (tjaalton)]

I believe this is fixed in lucid updates already, at least the ddd case is and it probably fixed this too. If you can still reproduce with 11.04, please open a new bug.

[J Anakata (jea-signup-launchpad)]

I have never hit this bug before, but for reference, I just hit it on a 10.04 LTS system; I let update-manager update it all the time so it should have all the lucid updates. It was freshly installed to 10.04 from a CD about 2 years ago. x86-64.

I wasn't doing anything weird, I had just picked up the laptop after having used it fine a few minutes prior.

The same behaviour described above in the bug (left clicks going to focused window even if outside of it, right clicking on desktop seems to fix it) occured so I'm pretty sure I'm seeing the same thing.

Being that I've been using this laptop with 10.04 nearly every day for over two years, I'd say that this is a "pretty rare" bug for me, but since the bug report matched exactly (and told me the workaround), I figured I'd add a comment.

Other details: HPG71-340US

agpgart-intel 0000:00:00.0: Intel Mobile Intel® GM45 Express Chipset
(--) PCI:*(0:0:2:0) 8086:2a42:103c:306b Intel Corporation Mobile 4 Series Chipset Integrated
Graphics Controller rev 7, Mem @ 0xd0000000/4194304, 0xc0000000/268435456, I/O @ 0x00004110/8
(--) PCI: (0:0:2:1) 8086:2a43:103c:306b Intel Corporation Mobile 4 Series Chipset Integrated Graphics Controller rev 7, Mem @ 0xd2400000/1048576

Running compiz for window manager:

ii compiz 1:0.8.4-0ubuntu15.3 OpenGL window and compositing manager

ii xorg 1:7.5+5ubuntu1.1 X.Org X Window System

[Andres Mendez (shiruken-f)]

WOOOOW!

alx (iamalx) hit the nail in the head for me. My wireless mouse had been having this random issue ever since Ubuntu 10.04 (now on Linux 13 Maya) running 3.20.0-36 and xserver-xorg 1:7.6+12ubuntu2

I have a Logitech MX100 wireless mouse.

I hope this helps some other poor soul looking for answers.

[Andrew (radamanf)]

KDE 4.8.5 Ubuntu 12.4 got all updates, maybe you have missed update for me, or if not, then this fix does not work and made things worse, this is the first time I have encounter this bug.

[staticint (0xa5)]

I can confirm that this bug happens on Ubuntu 14.04 Gnome.

The problem is that some mice are getting stuck after left clicking; from what I have read, I think this only applies to those using wireless mice.

I am using the Logitech M-RBF111 Mouse which uses an old wireless communication system (The USB Reciever is huge!).
Also, if I am not mistaken, I believe it affects the installation process as well!

I can't believe it took me this long to find the solution to this problem... Literally tens of hours of frustration and various configurations.

I don't think there is a fix for this. Just get another mouse that is up to date :)

This might help when you are experiencing the problem though:
1. Right clicking releases the left click until clicked again (just a pointer for those struggling)
2. Un-plugging and then plugging back in the mouse also releases the stuck left click.

I hope this clears everything up for someone else who happens to be having trouble!

Regards

[dronus (paul-geisler)]

Also happens to me on 12.04 in Gnome Classic Mode from time to time. Happens to plugged devices or integrated touchpads too.

Using the context menu click and left clicks in some wild fashion may release the stuck focus, but no clear picture what event exactly releases the stuck focus.

Triggering of the problem maybe involves wheel scrolling events or conetxt menu usage in some unusual combination.

[Alex (kachoff)]

@ staticint (0xa5) I am having the same issue with ubuntu 14.04 running gnome, though my mouse is the Cyborg RAT 9. This mouse isnt outdated as it is.
So far the only work around is unplugging and plugging back in. But sometimes it happend more often so i have to reboot.

[Neil Gunther (neil-gunther)]

I'm experiencing this problem on Ubuntu Gnome 14.10 Staticint. Funnily enough a Logitech mouse again with the old wireless system. Since I removed the Logitech and plugged in a spare wired mouse the problem seems to have sorted its self.

It seems ironic in that Linux is usually pretty good with old hardware.

I've been trying to find a solution for the last couple of years. Sometimes the problem was worse than others.

[Jean (gogor67)]

I've had this issue on my Samsung laptop with ubuntu 14.04, linux mint 17 and kali linux. As Kali is a Debian distro, it is not only an Ubuntu issue.
Disabling the touchpad and using only my mouse allows me to avoid any issua, but I'd like to be able to use my laptop like a laptop.

[Thanasis Papoutsidakis (blastofftek)]

Hi all, arch linux user with logitech wireless mouse, having the same problem. I tried using a different display server (weston on wayland) to make sure that it was an Xorg-specific bug, but on weston I couldn't click anything, so it's probably not X-related. I also tried switching between evdev and libinput and the problem persisted, so I'm thinking it goes deeper, probably kernel or drivers.
To somewhat fix it, initially I was killing the first X (or wayland) server to appear (pkill -15 Xorg (on X) or alt-ctrl-backspace (weston)), then if I ran startx (or weston) again the mouse would work quite well.
A better fix that I found later was installing and activating gpm (console mouse support). The gpm server would automatically activate during my console login, thus 'consuming' the bug, and then the graphical server would start with a perfectly working mouse. This is how I work up to the day.
Haven't tried the gpm fix with a graphical login.
Hope this helps.

[Greg (denverc0der9)]

I'm having these exact symptoms on 17.10, all the time. I can only go a few minutes without triggering this bug.

Thinkpad X1 Tablet, clean install of 17.10, happens in both X and Wayland sessions.

(In fact I can't click the "post comment" button, and have to hit tab, enter to post the comment!)

[aaronfranke (arnfranke)]

I just experienced this behavior with Ubuntu 20.04 (Gnome, X11, Nvidia GTX 1070). Only one window had focus. Some windows appeared in front of the focused window, but I could not click on them - clicking on them only sent mouse clicks to the window in the background. The "dots" in the dock that show what applications are open all disappeared, and if I moved my mouse over the apps then they became highlighted and wouldn't un-highlight. This is the first time I've experienced this issue, I've been using Ubuntu 20.04 since release, and 18.04 before that since its release.

[Andrzej Dubiel (ondrii)]

@arnfranke
I just experienced it too last week. I'm using Ubuntu since 2015.
Current mouse (trackball) I used from the beginning of 2020. It works with no issue with Ubuntu 18.04. Issue occurred just after last Ubuntu update (middle of August).
Whats funny when I have my mouse/trackball plugged in I have this issue also with touchpad.
When I remove mouse USB - everything works fine again.
Another thing is that when I plug in other mouse or trackball - the issue is not present. It is just with single device.

I also tried with another laptop with Ubuntu 18.04 (without update) I worked on it 2 hours - there were no issues. Then I just updated Ubuntu and restarted that second laptop and... issue occurred also on the second machine and again just after Ubuntu update. I'm mad, I love to work with my trackball but I cannot now.

This behavior is so strange.

Also when I unplug my trackball and plug it agan it works fine for 30-60 seconds and then issue occurred again.

[Andrzej Dubiel (ondrii)]

Whoa! I have experienced something interesting.
The issue disappeared when I tried to debug something with mouse and use `xev`.
After starting it (and also after closing it) - focus issue disappeared.
It would be awesome if this helped to fix it. Not sure if this is related but I'm temporary happy (will see for how long it is).

[Abhishek Mishra (akthunter32)]

I experienced the same issue but it dissappeared after i purged my xorg installation and reinstalled it from root shell(ctrl+alt+F4). i think main issue was with libinput in my case.
just thought to provide this information

[Abhishek Mishra (akthunter32)]

but it reappeared after some time

[Patric Trollope (patrict)]

I thought I was losing my mind!

I have also been experiencing this issue, and today finally managed to narrow it down to a specific cause. My issue starts when I am making use of the CTRL+SHIFT+PRTSCR shortcut to take a screenshot of an area you select.

I use this function frequently, and it sometimes results in my mouse functionality being isolated to the window that currently has focus. If I move my mouse cursor over another window I can see that the window registers the mouse position (for example hover animations are triggered) and scrolling works, but left and right click do not register in that window until I use ALT+TAB to change focus to that window.

If I hover my mouse pointer over the top bar, the pointer icon changes to a + which is the same icon that it changes to when you take the screenshot, so it seems almost like the screenshot overlay mechanism doesn't get reset/cleared correctly.

I hope this helps!

[Jeff Ward (jeff-ward)]

This is happening to me now with Gnome on Ubuntu 22.04.3. I'm going to document all the behaviors I see, and I think I have reproduction steps (taking a screenshot when a context menu is open, maybe specifically with shutter), but I need to reboot to verify the exact steps.

Observations while it is stuck:

- Core issue: Window focus cannot be changed with the mouse.
  - But it can with the keyboard. Alt-Tab still works.
- On the focused window: All mouse functions work: left / right / middle / wheel / hover
- On other windows: ONLY hover and wheel (scroll) DO WORK. No clicks whatsoever
- On the upper or lower gnome toolbars: nothing works. No clicks, no hovers. But the clock time is still correct, so they're "working"
- If I tap META, it opens the activities ui, but no mouse functions work (click/hover/wheel), but I can hit TAB or start typing to search for an app to launch / use arrow keys to navigate the interface.

- Regarding window adjustments (resize by borders, drag by title, close/maximize buttons) - Google Chrome responds differently than all other windows. I assume this is due to Chrome's custom window decorations.
  - Google Chrome can still be resized and dragged by title and closed / maximized / etc
  - Non-custom window decorations (gnome-terminal, gimp, shutter, vscode, Chrome's debug tools, etc) cannot be dragged, resized, or closed by their window decorations.
  - META-click to drag and resize does not work for any windows, Google Chrome included.

- Changing workspaces with keyboard still works. When you do so, as always, one window in the new workspace is focused, so it's the only working window.

- Running xev (and then closing it) did not fix it
- Killing shutter did not fix it
- Taking a second screenshot with shutter does not fix it.

I think that's all I can observe, I'll reboot now, and edit / update if I can reproduce it.

[Jeff Ward (jeff-ward)]

Yep, repro works for me:

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rr2bWccOUu4

Steps:

- Open Google Chrome
- Right-click to open a context menu
- Use the keyboard shortcut to trigger the gnome screenshot area UI
  - For me, that's CTRL-ALT-PrintScreen, but I my keybindings may be customized

That's it, and it may take a couple tries, but these steps 100% reproduces it for me. Please let me know if it reproduces for you, and if I can provide more info.

Notes:

- It must be a Google Chrome window. Context menus on gnome-terminal and gimp block my keyboard shortcuts entirely, so I cannot screenshot those context menus, and cannot trigger the issue.

- Using "shutter" to take the screenshot instead of gnome screenshot works. I have SHIFT-PrintScreen bound to `shutter -s`

Aha, I did find a non-reboot fix: 🎉

busctl --user call org.gnome.Shell /org/gnome/Shell org.gnome.Shell Eval s 'Meta.restart("Restarting…")'